AmazonReviews 11,108

I have bought a few dozen items and have some issues with their practices.
One: using free shipping with minimum purchase amount, they always sit on the order from 5 to 7 business days. These are in stock items and status reads preparing for shipment. I have seen credible reports detailing how efficient they and how they slave drive their order pickers. Sellers on ebay virtually always ship out next day. So why a week stalling my orders, EVERY time? I can only conclude its to force customers using free shipping to join amazon prime.
So I did.
Or at least wanted to.
I check the box for free 30 day membership and placed an order using my debit card.
A couple of hours later I get an email and it says my order cant be shipped because my debit card turned down the $100 prime membership fee. Huh?
The terms and conditions of prime free trial clearly state that amazon charges you the $100 at the END of the 30 day trial. And thats if you want the year of prime. Guess they lied. I ordered the same item from ebay. No problems.
I guess they figure most people will take prime anyway after the trial and not notice they were billed a month earlier or figure fighting them for a refund if they dont is futile.
Dishonest company.

Amazon is good. Sometimes their customer service drives me crazy (promising things they don't follow through on, creating snafus when there were actually none to begin with before contacting them), but overall they seem like a good company. When you consider the volume of business they do, and all the problems they have to deal with and correct that are either the error of a third party seller or the consumer, I think they do pretty amazing. Just wish the ship times were faster without prime. :)

Like to Read?
I read some good books recently that I thought I would share with others that love to read, in my case I like audio books. Once We Were Brothers and Saving Sophie both written by Ronald H. Balson are what I consider 5 star books. I suggest getting the audio versions. The performer (Fred Berman) does a fabulous reading of both of these novels. Also I recommend Excursion written by L, A. Zett, an action packed fast paced novel now in paperback. I recommend these books and others in my meeting group BOOKLUB which is located on the new web site The Groups Place.

To date I haven't had a problem returning an Amazon product within the return window and sometimes I've been giving extended time to do so. But to my surprise I've bought a few bad items based on FAKE 5 or 4 star reviews. Some of those reviews stick out easly due to them having the same typo error patterns.
Example: "love this. Great product." Or "bought two. Love it."

I have also noticed "Bad" reviews that were fake. They sometimes name another product they say is better. Some are being done by competiting companies and about 95% are not from Verified Buyers. Within the comment section under a bad review is where I first noticed a FAKE bad review. The sellers would be trying to resolve the issue and the customer seem to not want any type of resolution not even in returning the product. The seller claimed that the buyer was not a real buyer and that it was a fake review and all the customer had to do is return the product but they have no product to return. I'm sure the ones I've read like this we're fake.

My advise is to make sure the reviews are Verified reviews. I don't trust all of those either but this is a good place to start. Read and ask plenty of questions in the Q&A. Read through the good and bad reviews. Check comments to see if the seller responded to any of the bad reviews

Amazon is an amazing website. You can buy stuff from a huge range of things, and most are not that expensive. Their shipping is fabulous; I ordered a periodic table from Amazon, and about a week later or so, it arrived at my house, and it couldn't look more perfect! Although it would be nice to have earlier shipping. Amazon sells almost everything! I suggest you go try it and just browse through the site; it has many fascinating stuff for sale for a good price!

Amazon has great service, products and fast shipping. Asking questions about some products that don't already exist can take a while for a response so if you have a question about an item you need in a rush, this might make it difficult. I use the buyer reviews in cross referencing some of questions I have in on a particular item. When buying clothing, which I had all my bridesmaids order their dresses from amazon, Make sure you check each sizing chart for each dress options.

We do most of our online ordering through Amazon. They have fast shipping and prices that are way better than at the stores. Love love love!